Lower Your Battery Costs Easily
When fleets have discharged batteries, how should they deal with them? Battery manufacturers will honor warranties on failed batteries, but not all discharged batteries are necessarily faulty — some just need recharging. Identifying a battery’s condition is therefore crucial to fleets that don’t want to waste time and money returning or scrapping batteries that still could have life in them. A simple solution is to set up a dedicated battery recharge area.
A battery recharge area is a space or room to store batteries awaiting testing or warranty claims. Having a well-organized recharge area reduces confusion by keeping warranty batteries separate from core batteries. Keeping the room stocked with proper equipment allows technicians to recharge batteries quickly, a critical step in the testing process.
Purkeys’ Sales and Service Engineer Larry Rambeaux says, “A good battery recharge area can save fleets time, money and batteries by recovering batteries that are simply discharged.”
The right charger is essential for a successful recharge area. If a fleet is using both AGM and flooded cell batteries, it is important to have a charger that can do both. Not every charger is AGM-compatible, so it may be necessary to have two chargers.
It also is important to have a charger that will shut off automatically. If a battery is overcharged, the heat generated by charging can permanently damage the battery, shortening its life. With a charger that shuts off automatically, technicians are free to work on other jobs while batteries are charging.
Establishing a uniform system with clear labels and posted instructions allows technicians to consistently follow the steps to determine if a battery needs to be recharged. Rambeaux says, “If fleets don’t take a battery through all of the steps the same way every time, it is hard to ensure a quality product in the end.” With a set process in place, fleets can properly identify which discharged batteries just need recharging, thus reducing overall cost.
For more information on getting the most out of your batteries, download the free illustrated whitepaper, Create a Battery Program that Saves Money and Time, available exclusively through Purkeys.
For over 25 years, Purkeys has delivered innovative, cost-effective solutions to the electrical needs of heavy-duty fleets both large and small. Taking into consideration the electrical system as a whole, Purkeys reduces fleets’ maintenance costs and equipment usage by establishing new ways to obtain the maximum return on investment. Use less, get more. Headquartered in Northwest Arkansas, our level of expertise has garnered more than 10 U.S. patents, and attracted the attention of fleets, OEMs and other industry leaders throughout North America. For more information, please visit purkeys.net
